Ben Roethlisberger put on one of the best performances of his career and answered any questions about the offense's ability to compete in a shootout. He staked the Steelers to a 17-3 lead with two touchdowns, then brought them back from a 27-20 deficit with two more touchdown throws in the fourth quarter. Roethlisberger finished with 367 yards and four touchdowns and a passer rating of 119.4 in wet conditions. And no turnovers.

GRADE: A+

RUNNING BACKS

The Steelers rushed for 40 yards on 27 carries, their fewest yards since the season opener. And Le'Veon Bell, despite a 13-yard run, finished with just 36 yards on 18 carries. But Bell caught four passes for 52 yards, including a 43-yard catch and run to set up a field goal. Will Johnson had only one touch but it was a big one -- a 1-yard touchdown catch that put the Steelers ahead, 30-27.

GRADE: C

WIDE RECEIVERS

Antonio Brown had his second 100-yard game in a row and third this season with seven catches for 147 yards and touchdowns of 34 and 47 yards. On both scores, Brown ran 30 and 38 yards, respectively, after each catch. He also had a big 16-yard catch on third down to keep alive the winning 97-yard scoring drive. Heath Miller had a team-high eight catches, but his drop in the end zone forced the Steelers to settle for a field goal.

GRADE: A

OFFENSIVE LINE

The running game produced its lowest total since they had 32 yards against Tennessee. And their average per carry of 1.8 yards tied a season low. What's more, four plays from the 1 failed to produce a touchdown. Guard Guy Whimper had two holding penalties that helped create a short field for the Lions to kick a field goal at the end of the half. Roethlisberger, though, was sacked just once, a season low. And props to guard David DeCastro, who negated Ndamukong Suh.

GRADE: C

DEFENSIVE LINE

The Lions didn't appear to have any problems with the wet field, rushing for 107 yards and averaging 4.3 yards per carry. Cam Heyward continues to be disruptive in the defense, making six tackles and batting two passes. Steve McLendon's tackle thwarted the fake field-goal attempt from the Steelers 10. And Ziggy Hood, starting for injured Brett Keisel, had one of the two sacks and it was a big one -- on fourth down on the Lions' final play.

GRADE: C+

LINEBACKERS

It's hard to applaud any defense that allows 27 points, 16 first downs and 379 yards in the first half. But the Steelers reversed all that in the second half, shutting out the Lions and holding them to 72 yards and five first downs after halftime. Jason Worilds played very well for injured LaMarr Woodley with seven tackles, four hurries and a sack. And rookie Jarvis Jones deflected two passes.

GRADE: B-

SECONDARY

After allowing Matthew Stafford to pass for 327 yards in the first half, the Steelers held him to 35 yards on just 3 of 16 completions after halftime. Ike Taylor had a tough time trying to stop Calvin Johnson, who had six catches for 179 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. And he also dropped two interceptions that let the Lions score 10 points at the end of the first half. But Johnson was shut out in the second half.

GRADE: C

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Steelers had to settle for field goals on three of their four possessions inside the 20, continuing their red-zone problems. But Shaun Suisham converted all three attempts to push his season conversion total to 22 of 24. P Mat McBriar bailed the team out of a hole with a 70-yard punt to the Lions 12. But the biggest play came when the Steelers were not victimized by a fake field-goal attempt from the Steelers 10, leading 27-23.

GRADE: B

COACHING

It would be easy to say the Steelers changed their game plan and adjusted at halftime after the Lions put up 27 points in the second quarter with big pass plays. But defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau didn't make any changes and the players simply responded. A big effort by the offense to bail out the defense with a season-high 37 points and prove they are capable of winning these types of offensive shootouts. But the red-zone failures continue to be a problem.

Just skimming I mostly agree with these grades. I would drop the receivers to a B+. The played like A guys but 2 drops in the endzone makes me not feel right about seeing that A up there.

And I would bump the secondary up to a B-. Sure they had a bad quarter but it is Calvin Johnson they had it again. It isn't like vs Brady where they were getting torched by a TE and a bunch of no names.

After pondering the game, we really dominated almost the entire game. Catch the dam ball in the endzone and we have 8 more pts, Ike catches those int's and they have 10 less pts at worst, we have 6-10-14 pts. This was a pretty dominating performance actually, it could have ben a 17-59 score if we dont make those simple drops . . . let that sink in for a bit . . . Also, we basically shut down the best WR in the game and one of the top offenses in the games as well. We play Def like this, and off like this the rest of the season I like our chances.

QB - A+ Nothing else needs to be said
WR - B+ Can't make those drops in the EZ! Otherwise an A
RB - B- Made the tuff yards to kill the clock at the end when needed, but not enough earlier
OL - B Great job in Pass prot, terrible in run blocking, Whimper got owned most of the night, DD was a beast. If Pouncey or Velasco can/will play LG we are a good LT away from a dominant OL and a big turn around on that front
DL - A Stuffed the Lions run game, this is what I thought we needed to do to beat the Lions, we sill need a legit NT.
DB - B Aside from the 2nd Qrtr, they shut down a top offense, can't do much better than that. If Ike makes those catches, the Lions lose 10pts.
LB - B Stuffed the run, solid up the middle, zero pass rush (No Woodley keeps this from being a C). We simply NEED JJ to be a force next season if we are to back to our dominant def of past again.

We had one bad quarter….and we overcame it. To a man the Steelers coaches and players said there were not big physical or strategic adjustments made at half…just mental ones. Well, that was a heck-of-a-mental adjustment! Way to go Men of Steel!

The Following User Says Thank You to JeromeBetties63 For This Useful Post:

How long have the fans been asking why we always save the no-huddle/muddle offense for when we are behind by 2 TDs? Gotta love this Sunday's offensive gameplan-- go for the jugular right out the starting gate.

Isn't it amazing how much better your team looks when you force the other team to catch up, instead of playing not to lose?

Begs the next question that we have also been asking for years-- if Ben can run the offense that well by himself-- WTF do we need Arians or Haley for?

__________________GO STEELERS!!"On the S-2-7 train"

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Riddle_Of_Steel For This Useful Post:

Begs the next question that we have also been asking for years-- if Ben can run the offense that well by himself-- WTF do we need Arians or Haley for?

Begs the other question as well. If fans and everyone else realized the no huddle worked well for us and was a good option for Ben, why did it take Tomlin 10 games to figure it out? Do we even need him coaching our team?

Begs the other question as well. If fans and everyone else realized the no huddle worked well for us and was a good option for Ben, why did it take Tomlin 10 games to figure it out? Do we even need him coaching our team?

I would not bet Tomlin has figured out the no huddle. we've seen this many times before. we see it work mid game and then never see it again until we are down by 14 with 3 minutes to go.

even with the 70 yard punt the punter gets a big fat F grade. he's been awful for 2 games now....how long is the weather going to be an excuse for this guy? there was nothing wrong with punter from last year who was cut just before the season began

even with the 70 yard punt the punter gets a big fat F grade. he's been awful for 2 games now....how long is the weather going to be an excuse for this guy? there was nothing wrong with punter from last year who was cut just before the season began

Even with as crappily as he has seemingly played, McBriar has almost identical stats to Butler's from last year. And in fact, Mesko did too. Butler is just not an NFL-level punter. The only reason he made the team last year is because of Kapinos' (who I really liked) injury. I still don't know why they didn't bring him back this year. Maybe his injury was a career-ender. I don't know.

Anyways, I think the Steelers should take a hard look at the punters in the draft this year. Hopefully get a good one in a late round; although we know how that turned out last time. It's really unbelievable with Sepulveda. Maybe the greatest punter in NCAA history. Had some really nice numbers in his last two seasons with the team. But how often does a punter miss 28 games (not including playoffs) due to injury in 5 seasons?

he had a great leg but from what I remember rarely would he get the ball inside the 10. we'd punt from the 40-50 and it would end up being a 20-30 punt with the other team getting the ball at the 20. maybe I am not remembering punts inside the 10 but it seemed they were always ending up in the end zone.

whatever happened to the coffin corner on punts? and whatever happened to the hang time measurements for punts?